Apparatus for the preparation of paper stock and the like



E. COWLES Oct. 15, 1940.

APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PAPER STOCK AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 22, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet l 2 EIN VN TOR.

4 HHI HHHH Oct. 15, 1940. I E. COWLES 2,218,449

PARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PAPER STOCK AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 22, 193' 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I 2 I INVENVTOR.

. BY 7, TTIJR E1 3.

E. COWLES 2,218,449

Oct. 15, 1940.

APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PAPER STOCK AND THE LIKE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 22, 193

IIIIHIHHHHIHI By I ENVEIYTOR. flmmf rammed a. 15, 1940 PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PAPEKSTOCKANDTHEIJKE Edwin Cowles, Hopewell, N. 1., asslgnor to The Cowles Company, Princeton, N. 1., a corporation of New J ersy Application January 22, 1931, Serial No. 121,837 '9 Claims, (craze-23),

This invention relates to apparatus adapted particularly for use in the preparation of paper stock, but which may also be used for other. purposes suchas disintegrating, dissolving, mixing and screening solids suspended in liquids.

In the preparation of paper stock for use in paper making'machines itis desirable to submit the fibrous material,- suspended-in water, of course, to several types of treatment, each having it.) adifferentpurpose.

completely defibered, or the deflbered material must be separated from any undeflbered material, it must be cleaned and freed of waste and impurities, and usually it must be submitted .to 25 what is ordinarily called a refining action. by which is meant a grinding or crushing of the fibers in order to improve their web forming characteristics. In the pasta series. of pieces of apparatus have been requiredtoperform these various operations such as beaters, settling troughs, screens, centrifuges, Jordans, etc., and in view of the fact that the consistency of the stock had tobe varied for the 'various operations, means for thinning and thickening the stock had to be provided. 1

It is an object of the present invention to. provide a machine capable of performing either wholly or in part, either some or all of'the aforesaid purposes. For example, it is an object of theinvention totake raw material such as waste paper, disintegrateand defiberthe same, separate the defibered material from theundeflbered material and from various types ofwaste and impurities, while at the same time refining the I fibrous material, so as to. deliver from the machine stock which is capable of being used directly in paper or board making machines. natively, the said operations may be performed in part, depending upon the type of raw material 4 being treated and the results which it is desired to secure. e

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter. 1

A preferred embodiment of the invention selected for purposes of illustration is shown in Thus, the material must be Alter- Figure '6 is'an end elevation illustrating one of the scrapers.

Figure 7 is a bottom plan view in the opening and-thespinning screen unit therein.

Figure 8 isanenlarged section on the line 5 H Of Figure 7.

motor (not shown)- which-may be mountedon a frame 8, in order that the armature shaft may be connected directly to the shaft 6.

An annular chamber In is formed inthe lower 20 casing section 3, and the said chamberIis separated from the impeller chamber 4 by a perforated screen II in the form of a flat disk supportedon the grid 12 as best illustrated in Figure l 2. The said-annular chamber 10 is provided with 25 an outlet opening I 3 through which material enteringthechamber l0 through the screen ll maybe discharged.

A similar annular chamber I5 is formed in the upper casing section I, and the said chamber 30 is also separated from the impeller chamber 4 vby a perforated screen l6 supported by thegrid H. The .said chamber I 5 is provided with an outlet opening l8 through which material entering the chamber [5' from the impeller chamber 35 4 may be discharged. If desired, the perforations of the screen ll may be of a different size from ,those of the screen 16 in order that different grades or classes of stock may be removed separately-from the chambers l0 and 15, it being understood that the'smaller the perforations in the screen, the shorter the fibers which will pass through.

The impeller 5 is provided with a plurality of vanes 20 extending radially from the axis of theimpeller, and the said vanes carry scrapers 2| adapted to bear against the screens II and I6 as the impeller is rotated, thereby performing several useful and important functions in the operation of the machine. In the preferred embodiment illustrated, the said scrapers are made of resilient material such as relatively thin spring steel strip, and are'bol-ted to the impeller vanes,

' as illustrated in Figure 6, in such mannerthat the sprlnginess or resilience of themetal causes the leading edge of the scraper to bear against the screen. The perforations in the screen are preferably rather small, ranging, for example, from or even less for special purposes, to and the cooperation of the scrapers 2| with these relatively small perforations serves to clear the perforations to permit material to pass through and also provides an eflicient defibering and refining action on the fibrous material. It will be understood in this connection that the consistency of the stock in the impeller chamber is higher than that of the stock entering the chamber or of the stock leaving the chamber, the screens having a thickening effect on the stock. It will also be understood that the higher the consistency of the stock in the impeller chamber, within reasonable limits, the greater the defibering and refining action which takes place. The degree of thickening effected by the screens is dependent on the size of the screen perforations. and by the rate of flow through the screens, and may be adjusted, as desired, by varying the size of the screen perforations or by adjusting the rate of flow.

The amount of the refining action may be increased-if desired, by re-cycling material which has passed through the screen back to the impeller chamber for further treatment, and a very simple and effective means for accomplishing this purpose is illustrated in Figure 1, and comprises an adjustable plug 24 which cooperates with a large screen opening 25. It will be understood that the pressure created by the impeller 5 increases toward the periphery of the casing, and that it is greater at the outer edge of the screen It than it is at the opening 25. Consequently. if the plug 24 is backed oil. to permit material to pass through, the direction of flow will be from the chamber to the chamber 4. In this manner, by providing a plurality of plugs 24 and openings 25, a considerable quantity of material may be re-cycled, if desired, and the refining action may be increased thereby.

In the preparation of paper stock, and particularly in the preparation of stock from waste paper, there are two types of waste material which it is desirable to eliminate in order to improve the quality of the stock. These two types may be classified roughly as heavy materials and light materials, the heavy materials comprising such waste as pieces of metal, glass, sand and the like, while the light materials include such waste. materials as rubber bands, wood slivers, Cellophane and the like. In eliminating or removing these two classes of, waste materials, the centrifugal effect of the rapid rotation of the impeller is availed of to some extent. Thus an outlet opening 21 for the discharge of waste materials of a heavy nature is provided at the periphery of the casing and a discharge opening 28 for the discharge of light waste materials is provided near the axis of the impeller. Furthermore, the impeller itself is constructed to take advantage of the centrifugal effect. Thus the impeller is provided with a baille 30 extending at right angles to the axis thereof which deflects the inflowing material and throws it toward the periphery of the casing. Any heavy waste materials will remain at the periphery of the casing, of course,

and will be removed through the outlet opening 21, but lighter waste materials will tend to move toward the axis of the impeller where they will gradually float into one of the passages 3| between the baffle 30 and the shield 32 and are thus conducted to the outlet opening 28. The

shield 32 is provided primarily to protect such waste materials, once they have entered the passage 3|, from eddies produced by the movement of the scrapers along the screen It.

The inlet opening to the casing, designated generally by numeral 33, has mounted therein a rotating unit 34 which may be called a rotating or spinning screen for the inlet opening. This unit serves to limit the size of pieces of material tending to enter the apparatus and thereby eliminates many of the difllculties otherwise en countered in handling large pieces of material within the apparatus. In addition it performs a disintegrating and defibering action which enables the machine. if desired, to treat raw stock which has not previously been treated in a breaker beater. The said unit is cylindrical in shape and is rotated by the shaft 6 by means of a key-way 35. It is provided with a plurality of passages 38 separated by partitions 31, the

lower ends 3! of which may be curved or scoop shaped as illustrated in Figure 8 in order to improve the hydraulic efliciency. The unit is held in position by a ring 40, and is caused to bear against the ring 40 by a rubber washer 4| located between the unit and the nut 42 on the shaft 6. By adjusting the thickness of the rubber washer or by placing shims between the washer and nut, the pressure of the unit against the ring 40 may be adjusted as desired. Preferably the ring 40 is provided with an eccentrically curved edge 43 which overlies the openings to the passages 38 thus providing a shearing action which is extremely effective in disintegrating solid material entering or tending to enter the said openings. A prong 44 may also be secured to the rotating unit, which said prong additionally assists in disintegrating solid material and particularly any large sheets or lumps of solid material which might tend to cover the inlet opening and cut off the flow of material.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the machine is mounted abovea chamber 50 to which material may be supplied through the pipe 5|, but it will be understood that the machine may be mounted on any suitable container or that the material to be treated may be supplied to the inlet opening in any suitable manner.

Near the upper end of the shaft 6, and adjacent the gland packing 53, is provided a cylindrical groove 54 communicating with a pipe 55 to which water under pressure may be supplied in order to provide a water seal for the upper end of the shaft.- Another groove 56 is provided around the member 34 and the said groove communicates with the pipe 51 which supplies water under pressure to provide a water seal. It will be understood that these water seals serve to prevent fibrous material from entering the passages between bearing surfaces, but they may also be used to adjust the consistency of the stock which is being treated in the impeller chamber, for by increasing the water pressure, or by increasing the clearances, if necessary, the material in the impeller chamber may be diluted to any degree necessary or desirable.

It will be understood that the invention may be variously modified and embodied within the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an apparatus of the class described, in

combination, a casing, a flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, said screen having small apertures therein for screening purposes and a larger aperture therein for recycling screened material, and an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, the axis of said impeller being perpendica ular to said screen, said large screen apertures being located nearer to said axis than the majority ofsaid small apertures.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a casing, a flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, said screen having small apertures therein for screening purposes and a larger aperture therein for recycling screened material, a valve controlling said aperture, and an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, the axis of said impeller being perpendicular to said screen, said large screen apertures being located nearer to said axis than the majority of said small apertures.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a casing, a flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, and an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, the axis of said impeller being perpendicular to said screen said casing also having two outlet openings for unscreened material, one oi said openings being located at the periphery of said casing beyond the outer edge of said screen, and the other of said openings being located near the axis of said impeller beyond the inside edge of said screen.

4. In an apparatus of the class described, in

33 combination, a casing, a flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, the axis of said impeller being per- 40 pendicular to said screen, said casing also having two outlet openings for unscreened material, one of said openings being located at the periphery of said casing beyond the outer edge of said screen, and the other of said openings being located near the axis of said impeller beyond the inside edge of said screen, andmeans forming part of said impeller providing a passage to said second outlet opening.

5. In an apparatus or the class described, in

combination, a casing, a fiat screen in said casing, saidcasing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, means mounted in said inlet opening ing, said' casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, means mounted in said inlet opening and rotatable with said impeller and having edges to engage and disintegrate solid material entering said inlet opening, a ring at the mouth of said inlet opening, said ring having an edge extending across said impeller edges, and resilient means to hold the edges of said disintegrating means in shearing relation with the edge of said ring.

7. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a casing, a flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings tending across said impeller edges, resilient means to hold the edges of said disintegrating means in shearing relation with the edge of said ring, and means to adjust the pressure exerted by said resilient means.

8. In an apparatus of the class described, a casing, a fixed flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, said impeller having radial vanes, said intake opening being coaxial with said impeller, said casing also having two outlet openings for unscreened material, one of said openings being located at the periphery of said casing beyond the ends of said vanes, and the other of said openings being located near the axis of said impeller, and a baflie on said impeller extending at right angles to the axis thereof and adapted to prevent direct flow of material from said intake opening to said second outlet opening.

9. In an apparatus or the class described, a casing, a fixed flat screen in said casing, said casing having inlet and outlet openings on opposite sides of said screen, an impeller rotatable within said casing in close proximity to said screen, said impeller having radial vanes, said intake opening being coaxial with said impeller, said casing also having two outlet openings for unscreened material, one 01' said openings being located at'the periphery of said casing beyond the ends of said vanes, and the other of said openings being located near the axis of said impeller, a baflie on said impeller extending at right angles to the axis thereof and adapted to prevent direct flow of material from said intake opening to said second outlet opening, and means forming part of said impeller providing an en closed passage to said second outlet opening.

EDWIN COWLES. 

